Welcome

This web site is mainly dedicated to the Maya, a culture that has its roots in the 5th century BC in the modern states
of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, but also to all other cultures and indigenous people of the American
continent.

During approximately two millennia, the Maya culture flourished in the dense forests of Central America, where those
people built large temple pyramids, palaces and developed the only fully functioning writing system on the American
continent. During this time span, the Maya culture has seen a lot of sometimes dramatic changes and has often been
influenced by the powers of Central Mexico which rose fell during the time. Equally, the Maya have seen the establishment
and disappearance of different cultural and social forms, one of the most persistent the so-called collapse that ended
the Classic Period by the end of the 9th century AD.

The greatest change came with the arrival of the Spaniards in the year 1519. Repressed by the colonial government,
Maya culture again had to change in order to survive. Ancient believes fused with the Christian lore, books were now
written in Maya with the Latin alphabet. There was more than one occassion where the Maya battled the conquerors and
tried to expel them out of their land, the most bloodiest the Caste War during the end of the 19th till the beginning of
the 20th century. But only in recent times, the governments begin to guarantee the fundamental rights to the Maya people
and after centuries of repressions they begin to revive and show again their traditions in a new self-confidence. Today,
the Maya culture, still facing enormous problems, presents a very diversified picture. From the shores of Yucatán to the
lofty mountains of Guatemala, from the highlands of Chiapas to those of Honduras, Maya people keep their local traditions
and one of their thirty languages and foster their revival.

This website provides you with different features, accessable by the leftside menu. The "heart" of this site is the
research I have worked on and which I am providing here. Beside information on current works you will find previously
written papers. The focus is always laid upon the Maya regarding different fields such as epigraphy and linguistics
or ethnohistory and ethnography. But other topics from the cultural area of Mesoamerica may also be found, since Maya
culture is always interwoven with them.

Another central part of this web site is the image gallery with selected photos I took during several visits into
the Maya area. Since this site is only concerned with personal materials and cannot cover all areas of American
anthropology in general and Maya research in special, a comprehensive link list is provided, also some usefull
information and tools to download.

Kaxt a beèl!

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